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and such other books. I do not mention this,' adds Mr. Locke, as an imagination of what I fancy may do, but as ' of a thing I have known done, and the Latin tongue got ' with ease this way.'

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Mr. Locke proceeds to mention other advantages, which the child may receive from his mother's instruction, which I will endeavour more and more to qualify myself for: particularly, after he has intimated, that at the same time 'that the child is learning French and Latin, he may be entered also in arithmetic, geography, chronology, history, and geometry too; for if,' says he, 'these be taught him, in French or Latin, when he begins once to understand ' either of these tongues, he will get a knowledge in these 'sciences, and the language to boot.' After he has intimated this, I say, he proceeds: 'Geography, I think, should be begun with: for the learning of the figure of the 'globe, the situation and boundaries of the four parts of 'the world, and that of particular kingdoms and countries, being only an exercise of the eyes and memory, a child with pleasure will learn and retain them. And this is so 'certain, that I now live in a house with a child whom his

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mother has so well instructed this way in geography,' [But had she not, do you think, dear sir, some of this good gentleman's kind assistance?] that he knew the limits of the four parts of the world; would readily point, being asked, to any country upon the globe, or any county in the map of England; knew all the great rivers, promontories, straits, and bays in the world, and could find the longitude and latitude of any place, before he was six ' years old.'

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There's for you, dear sir!-See what a mother can do if she pleases!

I remember, sir, formerly, in that sweet* chariot conference, at the dawning of my hopes, when all my dangers were happily over (a conference I shall always think of with pleasure), that you asked me, How I would bestow my time, supposing the neighbouring ladies would be above

* See vol. i. pp. 289–302.

being seen in my company; when I should have no visits to receive or return; no parties of pleasure to join in; no card-tables to employ my winter evenings?

I then, sir, transported with my opening prospects, prattled to you, how well I would endeavour to pass my time in the family management and accounts, in visits now and then to the indigent and worthy poor; in music sometimes; in reading, in writing, in my superior duties— and I hope I have not behaved quite unworthily of my promises.

But I also remember, dear sir, what once you said on a certain occasion, which now, since the fair prospect is no longer distant, and that I have been so long your happy, thrice happy wife, I may repeat, without those blushes. which then covered my face: Thus then, with a modest grace, and with that virtuous endearment, that is so beautiful in your sex, as well as in ours, whether in the character of lover or husband, maiden or wife, you were pleased to say, 'And I hope, my Pamela, to have superadded to all these, such an employment '-as-in short, sir, I am now blessed with, and writing of; no less than the useful part I may be able to take in the first education of your beloved babies!

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And now I must add, that this pleasing hope sets me above all other diversions: I wish for no parties of pleasure but with you, my dearest Mr. B――! and these are parties that will improve me, and make me more capable of the other, and more worthy of your conversation, and of the time you pass (beyond what I could ever have promised to my utmost wishes) in such poor company as mine, for no other reason but because I love to be instructed, and take my lessons well, as you are pleased to say: and indeed I must be a sad dunce if I did not, from so skilful and so beloved a master.

I want no card-table amusements: for I hope, in a few years (and a proud hope it is), to be able to teach your dear little ones the first rudiments, as Mr. Locke points

the way, of Latin, of French, and of geography and arithmetic.

Oh my dear Mr. B--! by your help and countenance, what may I not be able to teach them! and how may I prepare the way for a tutor's instructions, and give him up minds half cultivated to his hands!-And all this time improve myself too, not only in science, but in nature, by tracing in the little babes what all mankind are, and have been, from infancy to riper years, and watching the sweet dawnings of reason, and delighting in every bright emanation of that ray of Divinity lent to the human mind, for great and happy purposes, when rightly pointed and directed!

There is no going further in this letter, after these charming recollections and hopes: for they bring me to that grateful remembrance, to whom, under God, I owe them. all, and also what I have been for so happy a period, and what I am, which is, what will ever be my pride and my glory; and well it may, when I look back to my beginning, which I ever shall, with humble acknowledgment, and can call myself, dearest Mr. B——,

Your honoured and honouring,

And, I hope I may say, in time, useful wife,

P. B

LETTER XCVII.

Mrs. B-- to Mr. B——.

MY DEAREST MR. B——,—Having in my former letters said as much as is necessary to let you into my notion of the excellent book you put into my hands, and having touched those points in which the children of both sexes may be concerned (with some art in my intention, I own), in hopes that they would not be so much out of the way, as to make you repent of the honour and pleasure you have done me in committing the dear Miss Goodwin to my care; I shall now very quickly set myself about the little book which I have done myself the honour to mention to you.

You have been so good as to tell me (at the same time that you have not disapproved these my specimen letters, as I may call them), that you will kindly accept of my intended present, and you encourage me to proceed in it; and as I shall leave one side of the leaf blank for your corrections and alterations, those corrections will be a fine help and instruction to me in the pleasing task which I propose to myself, of assisting in the early education of the dear children which it has pleased God to give you. And as, possibly, I may be years in writing it, as the dear babies improve, and as I myself improve, by the opportunities which their advances in years will give me, and the experience I shall gain, I shall then perhaps venture to give my notions and observations on the more material and nobler parts of education, as well as the inferior: for (but that I think the subjects above my present abilities) Mr. Locke's book would lead me into several remarks, that might not be unuseful; and which appear to me entirely new; though that may be owing to my slender reading and opportunities perhaps.

But what, my dearest Mr. B

I would now touch

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upon, is a word or two still more particularly upon the education of my own sex; a topic which naturally rises to me from the subject of my last letter. For there, dear sir, we saw that the mothers might teach the child this part of science and that part of instruction; and who, I pray, as our sex is generally educated, shall teach the mothers? How, in a word, shall they come by their knowledge?

I know you'll be apt to say that Miss Goodwin gives all the promises of becoming a fine young lady, and takes her learning, and loves reading, and makes very pretty reflections upon all she reads, and asks very pertinent questions, and is as knowing, at her years, as most young ladies. This is very true, sir: but it is not every one that can boast Miss Goodwin's capacity, and goodness of temper, which have enabled her to get up a good deal of lost time, as I must call it; for the first four years in the dear child were a perfect blank as far as I can find, just as if the pretty dear was born the day she was four years old: for what she had to unlearn as to temper and will, and such things, set against what little improvements she had made, might very fairly be compounded for as a blank.

I would indeed have a girl brought up to her needle; but I would not have all her time employed in samplers, and learning to mark, and to do those unnecessary things which she will never, probably, be called upon to practise.

And why, pray, my dear Mr. B——, are not girls entitled to the same first education, though not to the same plays and diversions, as boys; so far, at least, as it is supposed by Mr. Locke a mother can instruct them?

Would not this lay a foundation for their future improvement, and direct their inclinations to useful subjects, such as would make them above the imputations of some unkind gentlemen, who allot to their parts common teatable prattle, while they do all they can to make them fit for nothing else, and then upbraid them for it? And would not the men find us better and more suitable companions and assistants to them in every useful purpose of life?—Oh, that your lordly sex were all like my dear Mr. B!

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